Plastic Free Grocery Shopping
Is it really possible to do your normal grocery shopping without buying plastic?
This week, we put it to the test by searching online stores, a farmers market, supermarkets and small businesses.
How we made no plastic happen:
A Good & Fugly fresh produce box: They deliver fresh fruits and vegetables straight from farmers that would have otherwise gone to waste by giving you the produce too “ugly” for supermarkets. There is NO plastic in their packaging.
Who Gives A Crap: We get 100% recycled toilet paper delivered to our front door regularly. No plastic either!
Bulk food stores: Bring your own jars and fill them up with almost anything! Pasta, rice, flour, nuts, loose leaf tea, cleaning products etc. Our favourite thing we’d never seen before: refillable milk in a glass bottle! There was a station to fill your own glass bottle with organic dairy. We just wish there was one of these for nut milks!
Check out where the bulk food stores are in Sydney hereFill your own chocolate/lollies: We found that bulk stores and some supermarkets have refillable sections where you can weigh your own confectionary items. A Recycle Hero also suggested Melbourne’s Loving Earth for good plastic free chocolate. You can find them in Woolworths.
Naked Asian Grocer: Another Recycle Hero suggested this to us too: Australia’s first zero waste Asian grocery store.
Nuffin: Plastic free dips like hummus, tzatziki, beetroot dip etc. You can find them on the shelves of Woolworths. You could also try making your own dips with a food processor.
Bread: Farmers markets and bulk food stores normally have no plastic wrapped bread. However, you can also ask the bakery to put your bread straight into a reusable bag you brought. (or make your own bread, lockdown style!)
Meat and cheese: Butchers and Deli Clerks may also put your meat or cheese into your own container if you ask.
When we couldn’t fight the plastic:
Dairy: we really struggled to find no plastic dairy items like yoghurt. Unless you’re at a deli, cheese was difficult to find without plastic as well.
Tofu and other vegetarian/vegan products like fake meat: plastic free packaging was nowhere to be seen!
It’s possible to make your own yoghurt, tofu and other meat substitutes. But after running around to all these different stores, we were stretched for time.
So, is it really possible to do a plastic free shop? The answer is yes, it’s possible.
However, avoiding plastic all the time can be difficult. Sometimes choosing the plastic free option is more expensive or more labour intensive than we’d like it to be.
Some weeks, reducing plastic will feel easier than others. But if we all try, little by little, collectively we can make an enormous impact on the environment.
“We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.” Anne Marie Bonneau, Zero Waste Chef
If you have made your own plastic free food or have any more suggestions, get in touch! Email Katie at katie@recyclesmart.com
